Warface already has 25 million players before it even hits free-to-play-crazy China and Japan

Crytek has a free-to-play winner with PC game Warface, which has just surpassed 25 million registered users.

Warface is an online first-person shooter that Crytek first released in Russia, then in North America, Europe, Turkey, Korea, and Brazil. Its growth shouldn’t slow down anytime soon, since it will come to China later this year, followed by Japan and Taiwan. Densely populated China and Japan have both been very successful countries for other free-to-play games, and Warface could gain tens of millions of new players if it catches on.

Regarding the latest milestone, Crytek’s chief executive and creative director, Cevat Yerly, said, “It is a fantastic achievement for our franchise and for our teams, and we’d like to thank Warface players everywhere for their support. Warface is part of our games-as-service model, which means the game thrives off and revolves around our community.”

Like other free-to-play games, Warface can be downloaded and played for free and offers in-game content such as upgrades and customizations for a price. But Yerly has a vision of distinguishing its games in the free-to-play market. “We decided five or six years ago that we want to marry the quality of triple-A games with the business model of free-to-play,” he told GamesBeat last February. “Our primary goal is to make triple-A free-to-play games for the world market and transition entirely to that.”

Warface was formerly only available on PC until its Xbox 360 Edition entered open beta testing just a few days ago on March 26.